FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Free Software Foundation
Bradley M. Kuhn
Phone: +1-617-542-5942
Media Contact: Free Software Foundation Europe
Georg C. F. Greve
Phone: +49-40-23809080
Professor Lawrence Lessig Awarded the 2002 FSF Award for the
Advancement of Free Software
Brussels, Belgium - Saturday, February 8, 2003 - The Free Software
Foundation (FSF) bestowed today its fifth annual FSF Award for the
Advancement of Free Software. FSF President and founder, Richard
Stallman, presented the award to Professor Lawrence Lessig for promoting
understanding of the political dimension of free software, including
the idea that "code is law". Lessig has also promoted ideas similar
to free software in other related fields.
The award ceremony was hosted at the Free and Open Source Software
Developers' Meeting (FOSDEM) in collaboration with the Free Software
Foundation Europe.
A committee of Free Software leaders selected the winner and two
other finalists from the nominations received by the public among the
thousands of mostly volunteer programmers worldwide who dedicate their
time to advancing Free Software. The selection committee included:
Enrique A. Chaparro, Frederic Couchet, Hong Feng, Miguel de Icaza, Raju
Mathur, Frederick Noronha, Jonas Oberg, Eric Raymond, Guido van Rossum,
Peter Salus, Suresh Ramasubramanian, and Larry Wall.
Lessig was chosen from three finalists for the award. The other
finalists were Bruno Haible and Theo de Raadt.
This was the fifth award of this kind. The prior winners were Larry
Wall, Miguel de Icaza, Brian Paul, and Guido van Rossum.
About Free Software Foundation Europe:
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable
non-governmental organization dedicated to all aspects of Free Software
in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate in
a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and
redistribute software -- as described in the Free Software definition -
allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness
for these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally,
and giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software
are central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the
European sister organization of the Free Software Foundation.
More information about the FSF Europe can be found at
http://www.fsfeurope.org/.
About Free Software Foundation:
The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of Free
(as in freedom) Software - particularly the GNU operating system and
its GNU/Linux variants - and Free Documentation for Free Software.
The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political
issues of freedom in the use of software. Their web site, located
at http://www.fsf.org, is an important source of information about
GNU/Linux. They are headquartered in Boston, MA, USA.
Copyright (C) 2003, Free Software Foundation Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110, USA
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